Addie asks the Governor for a 'one on one' meeting on OCF

Here is the whole letter describing the situation. Check the last paragraph.

February 2, 2010

Governor David A. Paterson

Capitol

Albany, NY 12248

Re: Proposed closure of Ogdensburg Correctional Facility

Dear Governor Paterson:

I respectfully request that you remove the proposed closure of the Ogdensburg

Correctional Facility by April 2011 from your proposed 2010-2011 budget during the 30 day

amendment period. I do not feel that the state will be well served by closing this facility and its

closure will have a devastating effect on the City of Ogdensburg and the North Country.

In the early 1980’s when the state needed to add capacity to the corrections system

Ogdensburg welcomed the facility, especially given that they were facing the downsizing of the

state operated St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center. Other areas of the state fought the location of a

prison in their community. A few years later Ogdensburg welcomed a second facility, Riverview

Correctional Facility. The location of two facilities in Ogdensburg and the three others within

the hub has resulted in hundreds of North Country residents becoming state correction officers.

The correction officers at Ogdensburg and the other four Watertown Hub facilities are all North

Country residents. Further, hundreds of correction officers working at other facilities throughout

the state are North Country residents, putting in their time until they have enough seniority to

transfer back to the Watertown Hub.

The direct economic loss to Ogdensburg as calculated in your proposed budget is at least

$22 Million of the $23.9 Million in operating expenses, which is attributable to employee

compensation. The loss of $22 Million in compensation will be extremely devastating to the

North Country economy. However, that is only a fraction of the direct compensation loss

because those hundreds of North Country correction officers hoping to transfer back up north

will likely abandon their efforts and permanently leave the area, taking their compensation

elsewhere. The impact on the property tax base compounded with the crushing loss of dollars

and benefits that are pumped into the local economy will ravage Ogdensburg and St. Lawrence

County.

There will be little state savings related to salary expenses by closing the facility.

Correction officers will not lose their jobs, instead they will be reassigned to other facilities and

professional staff will have the same experience. They will not be looking for other work locally

such as in the green jobs sector. They will uproot their families to finish out the roughly five to

ten years most of them have left and will retire elsewhere, possible even out of state.

The proposed budget also asserts that there will be $12,431,000 in five year capital cost

avoidance. Of that figure, $9,431,000 is designated for replacing the hot water boiler house.

This proposed capital project is baffling. There is no need for a new boiler house. In fact the

facility receives FREE steam heat based on a 25 year contract that the state’s Office of Mental

Health has with a private facility located on the psychiatric center’s grounds. There are nine

years left on that contract and that private facility is actually trying to work with OMH to make

changes to their contract so that they can expand their operation to generate 26 MW of power

from biomass, creating approximately 50 permanent new green jobs. The proposed upgrade of

the perimeter closed circuit television system for $800,000 is not an immediate need, nor is the

$200,000 rehabilitation of the Flower Building basement. The upgrade of the shower controls

for $300,000 should actually pay for itself in reduced water consumption. The estimated capital

cost avoidance is a theoretical and remotely possible savings.

Another compelling argument against closing the Ogdensburg facility is the impact this

closure will have on the security staff and inmate population. Throughout our state’s

correctional facilities there are 4000 double-bunked beds. The Ogdensburg Correctional Facility

has double bunked inmates just like other facilities. Dormitories are designed for fifty inmates.

Ten of those beds have become bunk beds (double bunked), so a dormitory unit now houses up

to sixty inmates. The closure of the Ogdensburg facility will exacerbate this problem. Even

when factoring in Department of Corrections projections of a reduced inmate population, there

will still be double bunking and the closure of the Ogdensburg facility and other medium

security facilities will max out the current double bunks and require further double bunking.

Double bunking dormitory style facilities presents increased risk to correction officers and

essentially warehouses inmates. The state has been working to get away from the warehousing

of inmates that occurred in the past within the Department of Corrections. We are finally seeing

the numbers of inmates that our facilities are designed to hold and the proposed closures will

only mandate further warehousing.

The Ogdensburg facility is the type of facility we should keep open. Ogdensburg is a

model of the kind of facility the state has been working to achieve through recent reform

measures. At the Ogdensburg facility there are rare inmate on inmate incidents as well as

inmate on staff incidents. The facility runs smoothly and repeatedly scores high on their regular

inspections. While I understand there are concerns about the distance family members must

travel to visit an inmate in Ogdensburg, the fact that there is minimal violence and inmates have

an environment conducive to making progress in their rehabilitation and educational programs

surely out weigh those inconveniences.

The state will not be well served by closing the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility. If

closed the actual cost savings will be minimal to the state, other facilities will be forced to

warehouse inmates at unsafe levels, undermining rehabilitation efforts and a community that has

always been a good partner with the state will be devastated. The state would be better served

by reducing the amount of administrative staff at the Department of Corrections. While the

inmate population has decreased markedly in the past decade, the amount of administrative staff,

particularly in Building 2 at the Harriman Campus in Albany has exploded, essentially doubling

in size. Cutting staff in Building 2 by twenty percent (20%) would immediately save the state

roughly $15 Million in salary and benefit expenses. Those 180 jobs can be more easily absorbed

in Albany than they can be in Ogdensburg.

I have been receiving emails and letters of support to keep the Ogdensburg facility open

since the presentation of your proposed 2010–2011 budget. They are increasing in volume daily.

The St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators has appointed an ad hoc committee and the City

of Ogdensburg a task force to address the closure. Dozens of people attended a press conference

I held on the matter last week and hundreds of people attended a public rally last Friday to

support keeping the facility open. Thousands more North Country residents have signed

petitions to keep the facility open. The community support to keep the Ogdensburg Correctional

Facility open has been strong from the beginning and is only increasing in strength.

Thank you for your courteous consideration of my request. I would like the opportunity

to meet or speak with you to discuss this critical issue further. I can be reached on non-session

days at (315) 786-0284 and during session days at (518) 455-5545.

Sincerely,

Addie J. Russell

Member of Assembly

118th “River” District